


Sleep Awake

by Siyuris



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Falling In Love, M/M, Mentions of other ships, Murder, Romance, Slow Burn, The Skeld (Among Us), Touch-Starved, and others colours but i'm too lazy too tag them all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:28:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26798092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Siyuris/pseuds/Siyuris
Summary: Protecting meProtecting youCarving away our fingerprintsOut of our fingertips until they're smoothThis was only Cyan’s eighth mission, but definitely the worst so far. It wasn’t that hard to beat, the first few were just boring, and on this particular mission, they found a dead body of one of their crewmates in the canteen, so you know. Pretty fucking bad, if you ask Cyan.
Relationships: Black/Cyan (Among Us), Crewmate/Impostor (Among Us)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 121





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first ever work in english, hope it won't suck that bad. I plan to post a chapter every week but we'll see about it.
> 
> Also, yeah the title is from mother mother song

This was only Cyan’s eighth mission, but definitely the worst so far. It wasn’t that hard to beat, the first few were just boring, and on this particular mission, they found a dead body of one of their crewmates in the canteen, so you know. Pretty fucking bad, if you ask Cyan. 

Blood was everywhere, pools of it on the floor and around the body, which was at some time in the past their fellow Brown, but now was just a mess of bones and meat, and a scrap of his brown suit. 

Yellow, who found him, puked in her helmet, and now took it off, probably leaving cleaning for later. White, their captain, tried to calm her down, with them all panicking around the crime scene, and made her remember anything from before this situation, which could help them understand what happened.

“You were coming from Weapons to fix the lightning, right?” White squeezed Yellow’s hands, trying to help her focus. The blonde girl was shaking so much that Cyan could hear her teeth chattering from where he stood. He turned away from them, barely able to stand the smell of blood floating in the air, unable to look at the body anymore.

“Y-yes.”

“And then, you headed to the canteen because it was faster that way?” pushed White. 

Yellow just nodded, but the other girl interrogated her with no mercy. White was like that sometimes. Determined, cold, not backing down, taking no prisoners in what she did. Sometimes they called her a bitch, but the truth was, Cyan had never met a better and more competent captain than her, and from the stories told by different ships he knew, he was right. All of what she was doing now was just because of a sincere concern about her crew and mission, but still Cyan pitied Yellow, who at this moment looked more greener than Lime's suit.

“Damn it!” Cyan heard White swearing and looked up, trying to desperately forget about his swinging vision. Their captain took her helmet off too and put it on one of the tables with so much force it nearly broke. Her black skin contrasted so much with the suit, beautiful but stern face twisted in grimace. She tugged one of her braids and sighed so hard, that Cyan felt all of the pain she was going through.

“Fucking hell.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, and closed her eyes. It was quiet for a moment, with the crew not daring to breathe too loud, afraid of distracting White. Cyan looked at his crewmates, wondering how they are taking all of this. Probably better than him, as always. He knew they didn’t like him much, due to his awkwardness and slowness. He had sloppy moves, always taking so long to do the most simple tasks, with all crew waiting for him. It was only three weeks but he already saw how they were looking at him. He knew only White, from his former missions, but even she didn't always have the patience and understanding for him. She couldn’t afford to, she was a captain.

Now, everything he could see was the distrust among them all. How Red grimaced at Yellow, Lime took a step back from Purple, Orange stared at Pink suspiciously. Most of them didn't know each other before so now everybody felt so uncomfortable, looking at the crime scene and wondering what the hell happened here? 

“Do we have any dangerous animals on the ship?” asked a low voice behind Cyan’s back, and he almost jumped out of his skin. He totally forgot about Black, the quiet and grumpy crewmate, that most of them instantly feared. It sometimes looked as he was materializing from the shadows, his black space suit blending with the dark corridors perfectly, his footsteps too quiet to catch. 

His presence always gave Cyan a goosebumps and he tried to convince himself that it was all because of how mysterious Black was all the time, and nothing more. 

Nothing. More.

“No, damn it, we’re the only leaving creatures on this fucking space ship.” said White, and Cyan didn’t like how it sounded at all. From the faces the other crewmates made, their feelings were similar. 

“I think there’s no point in standing there anymore.” White sighed again after a moment of silence, and lifted her helmet. “You all are excused from the tasks today, go to the medbay and get some rest. I’m going to call base and report all of this.” She put her helmet on and readjusted it. Then suddenly she turned to the body, like she just remembered that they have to do something with it, but before she opened her mouth again Orange took a step forward.

“I’ll clean the mess, captain.” they said. Then Purple also walked over and murmured   
“I’ll help.” 

Cyan must admit, he was glad that they volunteered. Apparently White thought the same because she hesitated only for a second before she nodded shortly and went to the Communications, leaving them all in the room. 

“So…” Cyan started, but the sudden movements drowned his voice in the sounds. Cool. He thought, going to the door with others. Maybe it’s better that way, he would probably said something stupid and out of place, and now they can’t hate him more then they already do. 

But Red still nudged him with his arm, in the exit which made him lose his balance and fall to his knees. His cheeks burned from the humiliation. Maybe it wasn’t on purpose, maybe it was just an accident, maybe he will apologize later, maybeー

“Are you ok?” Shit. The rough voice again. This day couldn’t be worse.

“Yeah yeah, I’m just sloppy you know, nothing to worry about, Black.” He faked a laugh and tried to get up without making a fool of himself again in front of his crewmate.

A long sleep. And maybe a hot shower, that was all he needed now. But he doubted that any amount of water could make the vision of Brown’s blood disappear from his mind in the nearest future.


	2. Chapter 2

Maybe Pink shouldn't have made that kind of mess in the cafeteria. Black thought, when all of them were changing in the medbay, preparing for the shower and sleep. He could hear the irregular heartbeats of his crewmates, and their faster breaths, and all of this was making him crazy. 

He hated his sharpened senses sometimes. Being an Impostor was a nightmare, the urge to kill, to draw blood from the humans around him, the ability to hear their quickening pulse and hammering hearts. It all made his life so loud, so distracting he could barely stand it sometimes.

He envied Pink. She acted so freely, like it didn’t impact her at all. Like she even enjoyed it.

Black could’t understand that.

“Okay, I’ll go shower first if you guys don’t mind.” Red stretched his back, his tone suggesting, that even if they do mind, they could keep their thoughts to themselves. The only person he ever backed down before was White, and sometimes Black. Only for them he has the slightest amount of respect, because of the range (with White) and because of the scary presence (with Black). 

That reminded Black of something, his gaze flickering to the bed next to his where Cyan was taking off his pants. Just as he assumed, Cyan’s knees were red and the bruises were starting to form. Black couldn’t understand why all the crewmates hated the dorky boy so much, he was harmless and wouldn’t hurt a fly. Sometimes when Black was exploring the vents he could hear Cyan swearing, when his downloading data was interrupted and he had to do this again, or when the tenth swipe of the card in admin was rejected. 

So yeah, Cyan was hardly a threat, maybe for himself only, when he couldn’t wear his too big space suit pants properly and tripped on them, ripping his knees and elbows.

Sometimes Black almost pitied him. The feeling just above the edge to grab and hold on to, but he always got distracted by different thoughts about blood and mission, before he could think more about what the concept of pity means

. 

What the concept of deeper feelings means.

“Yo, Black, you okay buddy?” The too sweet to be nice voice ripped him from the weird state where he found himself. He blinked once and looked at Pink, who were looking at him innocently, with the fake concern on her face. Other crewmates looked at them but paid them no mind, as all of them got accustomed to Pink’s too friendly approach towards everyone. 

“Yeah.” He mumbled with difficulty, so he swallowed and tried again. “Just a lot on my mind.”

“I totally get it.” The gleam in her eyes were dangerous, only for him to see, but tone sympathetic, and she almost looked like a normal person and not the blood starving monster she really was. “We’re all shocked. But if you need to talk or something, you know where to find me, right?”

He muttered something unnoticeably and watched her go. Oh, she was so good at this. Making friends with them all, drawing all the suspicions off herself, raising up their trust just to drive the knife in their back when they expect it less. A perfect actor, a perfect killer.

She probably didn’t thought about something so stupid as pity, did she?

***

“I have good news and bad news.” White’s voice interrupted their meal, making all hushed conversations still. 

Black stopped eating his oatmeal without regret, moving his hands with the spoon almost mechanical at this point. Food in space wasn’t anything special in general, but for the Impostor it was ten times worse. It all tasted like an ash, and the only really good thing for their kind to eat and enjoy it was blood-- the fresher the better.

But of course, to not blow up their cover, Black ate all they gave him with a blank face, just to vomit it up later, when nobody were near the bathrooms. It worked for so long he couldn’t remember anything different.

Today, for once, his behavior wasn’t suspicious or unnatural at all, because the appetite of his crewmates wasn’t showing too. Especially Orange and Purple looked at their breakfast with pale faces that showed all of them that their thoughts were with Brown’s guts they cleaned from this room only hours ago. Black assumed that no human would want to eat anything after experiencing something like that.

“Is there any good news?” Mumbled Red, putting his sandwich back on his plate and making a face when White glared at him coldly. Other people just obeyed the silent request from their captain and turned their attention to her without making any unnecessary comments. Unlike Red, they knew when was the time to shut up.

“As I was saying…” White sighed and straightened up a little, now when all of the eyes were on her. “I have some… news. I’ve talked to the base, and reported this situation. They said they will send us a ship from Polus with some specialists to discover how it could happen. But they won’t be there for the nearest future. To be perfectly honest, they won’t be there until next month at least, so everything we can do now is to do our job. There’s nothing else. I mean it.” She looked at their concerned faces a little gentler. “I know it makes us all crazy to know what happened. I know it. But to stay sane, we need to spend this time somehow, and I think the best way to do so is doing exactly the same we did before. I won’t change the day schedule, I won’t change the daily tasks I gave you. Speaking of…” The woman reached into her pocket and took off a little tablet. Then she pressed something on its screen and the loud beeping spreaded in the room. Black looked down, realizing that the sound was coming from the similar tablets placed in their own suits, what they usually used to look at the maps or see what tasks they still needed to do. He took his tablet out as the others and noticed that it looked different. Now on the screen he saw not only his tasks and the map, but the “report” button, which seemed to glare at him with the angry red colour.

“I just sent you your duties. But you probably realized that the really important thing is the new function I uploaded for you last night. Now you can use it if you ever see anything strange without coming to the emergency button in the cafeteria. However, we’ll all still meet there if anything happens, to discuss the problem.” She finished, looking at them expectantly. “Questions?”

All eight of them shook their heads and remained still, the air dense from the weird atmosphere between them. 

Black could hear the faint smell of fear, and hear the hearts beating a little too fast, when the seriousness of the situation got to his crewmates.

Something odd was happening there, and their hands were tied. They were blind in the face of the unknown danger, and they were supposed to live through it to the next month at least.

Black almost smiled then. He assumed that they would probably be dead from fear if they knew that the real danger was closer than they thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooo, thank you so much for your kind words!!! I love you all, the feedback is so motivating <3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ATTENTION!   
> Some infos:  
> 1\. The informations about how the ship works are mostly my imagination and not the truth. I mean, I don't work for NASA, I write about gays in space ok
> 
> 2\. Characters pronouns:  
> Black he/him, Cyan he/him, White she/her, Pink she/they, Lime they/them, Purple they/them, Orange they/them, Yellow she/her, Red he/him and brown is dead he/him
> 
> Enjoy!

“God damn it!” The echo of Cyan’s voice sounded three times louder in the empty room, making him flinch. He closed his eyes and then made a face, trying to calm himself once again.   
Just breath, he thought, grabbing an edge of the steer console and inhaling deeply. Just breath, don’t make a scene, try to figure it out. You don’t want them all to think you’re useless more they already do, don’t you?

Cyan sighed for the last time and raised his head. The windshield of his helmet was fogged from his breath and he couldn’t see anything clearly. He would gladly take it off long ago, but it was forbidden. They could do this only when the room, where they were about to undress somehow, was first decompressed. And then, with the all EHS rules, and the really advanced ventilation system, they have permission to take off parts of their space suits. Rooms like the bathroom and bedroom were always ready for them to undress, with the automatic sliding door made of several layers of metal, which can be opened only by typing code first. Others, like the cafeteria, were able to do so too, for example when they were eating meals, but to make moving around the ship easier they weren’t always closed during their job time. 

To sum up, Cyan’s helmet must have stayed on. Even when his job was to chart the course, and he couldn’t see shit. 

It was humiliating. So simple a task every one of his crewmates knew how to do in no longer than five minutes, but of course for Cyan it was impossible to do. He didn’t really know why. His fingers in the space gloves were suddenly too clumsy, his windshield fogged, and all the noises that The Skeld was making (which at this point should be familiar) irritating.

This really wasn't his fault. 

He wasn’t stupid, as some of the colleagues liked to say, when they thought he couldn’t hear them. He wasn’t stupid, he wasn’t useless, he wasn’tー

“Shit!” He screamed, when the lights turned off all of sudden, and he lost his balance, surprised.

He tried to keep down his burning shame. He fell off because he was scared of the dark, like some baby and not an astronaut! For fuck’s sake they were surrounded by the impenetrable velvet dark of the endless space, why some broken light bulbs would be worse than that?

“I need to go to the electrical and fix it or I won’t do this stupid task and I can’t freaking let White dowー” He paused and looked up, when the pair of pink boots appeared just in front of him. 

“Cyan, what are you doing on the floor?” Fuck, he didn’t even hear when she came, but at least it was Pink and not Red. He could only imagine how cruel Red would laugh at him, and later lied to all other people on the ship, how Cyan hid under the chair in Navigation like a pussy, when the lights switched off.

“I… Nothing Pink, it was an accident. Can you help me get up, please?” The situation wasn’t ideal, if Cyan must be perfectly honest. He didn’t really like Pink, always feeling a little weird when in the same room with her, but now it wasn’t like he had a choice anyway. Moving in the space suit was hard enough for a person as clumsy as Cyan was, so a helping hand was really needed. Even from a person who’s stare made him flinch.

“Sure I can.” Pink smiled in this weird way that didn’t reach their eyes, and showed her teeth. Cyan felt the goosebumps all over his body but ignored it, and tried to grab a hand they offered without making a face that could give away his real feelings. Her grasp was a little too tight and didn’t let go after he stood on his feet. 

“Thanks.” Cyan smiled like this situation wasn’t awkward as hell, with his palm still trapped in the iron grip of his crewmates hand and him also pinned in place by their predatory look, visible despite the darkness in the room. He shivered again. 

Pink opened her mouth to say something, but in the same moment a big hand collapsed gently on Cyan’s arm and squeezed, making him jump and scream.

“Didn’t mean to scare you, sorry.” A low rumble confirmed the identity of a stranger, and Cyan almost cried from relief, that he didn’t have to spend any second longer with Pink and her strange behaviour.

He turned around to look at Black with grateful expression, but he had no idea if the man saw it, all his form and helmet melting with the shadows in the room. He realized he didn't even hear him coming.

“Lime wants you to help them fix the lights, Pink.” Black said, and again Cyan couldn’t see his mouth moving behind the dark windshield, his posture unnaturally still. 

Pink glared at him for a very long and quiet three seconds, and suddenly let go of Cyan’s hand and backed away. The move was so unexpected that Cyan swayed a little, but the Black’s grip on his shoulder supported his weight and helped him catch his balance. 

“Okay, I’m coming then. See you later boys!” Was all Pink said before blowing a kiss in their way and then turning back and disappearing in the long corridor. 

Cyan looked after her with a really confused face. Was this all… flirting?

The sudden loss of familiar warmth on his shoulder brought him back from his thoughts, and he turned to face his savior, feeling the blush creeping on his neck.

Black still stood unmoved, but the line of his shoulders almost invisibly relaxed and he moved his head to look at Cyan.

“Thanks.” Coughed the smaller man and smiled hesitantly. “Pink is weird sometimes, you know?”

Black just looked at him. Cyan knew that he was more of a quiet and reserved type of person, and decided to fill the silence by himself.

“Anyway, it’s not like I don’t like them, it’s just that I don’t really know what she wants from me. It may be just a flirt, but she’s like that to everyone, yeah?” He walked up to the steering console and started typing the needed information again. “Well, personally I think no one here is one hundred percent honest with their intentions. Lime, for example. They’re head over heels in love with White, and they're volunteering into every mission she’s going, since almost three years!” He chattered while working, feeling the steady presence of Black behind him. “Everyone except of course White knows this. She’s really oblivious to any sort of courting. In the base, we were making bets when they’re going to confess their feelings finally. I mean, I weren’t, it’s not like I have too much money to spend on things like that anyway.” He finished lamely, not wanting to tell the truth; that no one really were interested in making any bets with HIM specifically. Cyan faked a smile and turned his head to Black, who was just standing there, watching him finishing his task. Cyan has no idea what was in his head, the face invisible behind the helmet. He probably just said too much again, didn’t he? When no one on the ship really has the time or willingness to talk with you, you’re becoming lonely, and then you’re starting to overshare with the first person that will come across and stay long enough to listen. “Sorry for the gossip! I didn’t mean to be rude or anything, I like Lime so much you know? It’s just that I… well, forget that. I’m just glad you’ve accompanied me.”

He didn’t really expect any answer but suddenly a raspy “You’re welcome” crossed the room. Cyan hid a smile and stared at the space behind the windshield. Stars, darkness, silence. Some people would call this romantic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Love you all guys for your feedback, thank you thank you thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> Yooo let me know what u think bc the feedback is basically all you can do to make me write, finishing fics is almost impossible to me


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